


Typewriter

by blackflowercrowns



Series: Girlsies Week 2018 [1]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, Girlsies, Girlsies Week 2018, sort of an overview of Katherine's life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 09:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14422476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackflowercrowns/pseuds/blackflowercrowns
Summary: Katherine gets her first typewriter.





	Typewriter

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the first installment of Girlsies Week 2018! All of these works were originally posted on my tumblr @rightwaytowriteit and now I am posting them here as well!

Katherine stared at her new typewriter. It was big and black, and ugly, but it was beautiful to her. She loved it with everything in her. 

She ran her hand over the smooth keys and pressed down on a few. They made a satisfying ‘crunching’ sound and left beautiful letters on the paper up top. Katherine grinned, the giddiness overtaking her at last. She jumped around the room and flailed, laughing all the while. 

Her brother watched from the doorway. “Glad you like it,” he said.

Katherine ran over and hugged him. “Thank you so much, Joseph! I love it!”

He patted the top of her head. “I knew you would.”

~~

Katherine sat down in front of her typewriter. Unlike the first time, she was quiet. Yes, she was excited, but it was a somber excitement. It was time for her to write her first piece. The Sun had given her a trial time of two weeks to dip her toes in the water of reporting and see how she liked it. She was determined to be in the deep end of the pool at the end of those two weeks.

She sat down to type. _The New York City flower show had many lovely contestants this week, including Mrs. Marietta Gray from New Jersey who ended up taking first prize . . ._

~~

Katherine slammed the door to her father’s house and ran upstairs. She grinned as she recalled her interview with the newsies, specifically Jack Kelly. He certainly was handsome, but too much of a flirt for her tastes. Nevertheless, she had an article to write. 

She flung herself in her desk chair, paper and pen falling onto the table beside the typewriter. She picked up typing paper and quickly lined it up and pushed it in. 

“You heard the man,” she muttered. “Write it good. Write it good or it’s back to wheezing your way through the flower show,” she let out a wheezy breath. “No pressure.”

She took a moment before shaking her head and settling down. 

The clacking of keys filled the room as she quickly typed the title to her article.

_NEWSIES STOP THE WORLD_

~~  
Katherine’s typewriter was durable, she would give it that. It had survived falling on the floor, being thrown onto the floor, and once she had even knocked a vase on it. But it was still there, after all these years. A few of the keys were broken, it had dropped its y, but it still worked.

Of course, Katherine had a new one now. It was sleek and red, and portable. But she still loved her old black one, the one where she had written her first piece, her strike piece, diary entries, short stories, and the most important documents of her life. 

She decided to continue the tradition.

_You are cordially invited to the wedding ceremony of Mr. Jack Francis Kelly and Ms. Katherine Ethel Plumber-Pulitzer_

~~

Katherine was old now, and it hurt her fingers to typed. The keys were hard to push down, and the muscles in her fingers were already weak enough. She didn’t write very much anymore, just dictated it to others to type for her.

She glanced from her bed across the room to where her old black typewriter sat. It didn’t work anymore, worn down by use throughout the years. Still, she kept it. It was an instrumental part of who she was and who she had become. Time after time she had gone to throw it out, but never could. So it sat in a place of honor on the dresser with a few pictures.

One was a wedding portrait. The joy on their faces hadn’t faded in the fifty-something years since that picture was taken. Beside it was a picture of Jack, taken right before he was shipped off for the Great War. It was the last picture she had of him. Beside it was a picture of their son, David, sitting with his uncle Les. Les had made it home, but his brother hadn’t. When he heard that the baby was named after his older brother, he cried. Katherine adopted Les, too (unofficially of course) and all three lived next together in two small apartments. 

The last picture was one taken a very long time ago, long before any of the others. It was one that ran alongside her article and didn't even have Katherine in it. The paper had faded over time, and they daren’t take it out of the frame for fear it would crumble to bits. It was the picture of her striking newsboys, the day after they decided to show the World what they were made of.

Katherine smiled. They hadn’t stayed young forever as she’d predicted, but growing old was okay too. 

~~

Les came in to check on Katherine around lunchtime. She hadn’t been feeling too well the last couple of days, and Les and David both knew it was almost her time. They weren’t stupid, she was well above sixty. She had lived a long and productive life. 

“Katherine?” he asked, knocking on the door. There was no answer. 

He tried again. “Kath?” 

Silence.

He opened the bedroom door to see Katherine lying face down on the desk. She had Jack’s service picture in one hand, and the other was lying on her typewriter. Les gasped and rushed to her, frantically feeling for a heartbeat.

Finding none, he stepped back, tears filling his eyes. He’d known it was coming, but it still hurt. He turned to call the undertaker, but something on the desk caught his eye. Her big black typewriter that hadn’t worked in twenty years had typed something out.

_Even when we’re old, we’ll stay young forever._


End file.
